The very first earl of Southampton

The ist earl of Southampton is commonly thought to be Sir Thomas Wriothesley, who became the first of his dynasty to hold the title in 1547. It is indeed conventional practice to number the golders of a title from the first holder of a new family, and when an extinct title is revived for a new family, the numbers start at one. Thomas Wriothesley's male descent went down to the fourth generation, so in that context, the "1st Earl" has some meaning.

The earl of Southampton never existed in the middle ages but on 18 October 1537 William FitzWilliam was created earl of Southampton. He held considerable estates in Hampshire and parts of Sussex and Surrey, some 16,000 acres, as well as other manors scattered around the country. He was well able to support his new dignity.

He was born c. 1490, the son of Sir Thomas FitzWilliam of Aldwark in Yorkshire's West Riding, and Lucy Neville. a daughter of John Neville, Marquess Montague, and therefore a member of the powerful Neville clan. On the death of his father, his mother married Sir Anthony Browne and bore him a son, also Anthony (c 1500-1548) and it was this family which the Wriothesleys later married into later in the 16th century.

FitzWilliam was able to make his way at court and became a very close friend of Henry VIII. He was employed on many diplomatic and military missions and between 1526 and 1530 was Captain of Claais, one of the prized postings for English soldiers and held at one time by his acncestral relative, Richard Neville, the earl of Warwick known as the kingmaker.

Both FitzWilliam and his half-brother, Anthony Browne, were committed to the old faith, but they were also firmly committed to the king, and this overrode any scruples they might have about the reforms to the church of the 1530s. He worked for the king to persuade people to accept the reforms of the 1530s and he also helped to engineer the fall of Ann Boleyn.

He was made Lord Admiral in 1536 and this was closely followed by his elevation to an earldom. He was sent by Henry to negotiate the marriage with Ann of Cleves. Henry was disappointed when he eventually met her but Southampton escaped censure. He was certainly on hand to help the king to get the marriage nullified and on the downfall of Cromwell in 1540 he was quick to distance himself from his former associate. He was made Lord Privy seal.

He died two years later in 1542 without heirs as his wife was unable to bear children. He was a very wealthy man at his death, and apart from generous bequests to family and friends and others, the bulk of his estates passed to his half brother, Sir Anthony Browne. Browne's granddaughter, Maria, was to marry Henry Wriothesly, 2nd earl of Southampton, and indirectly, some of the FitzWilliam estates fell to the Wriothesleys who, in 1547,  picked up the vacant title.